lululemon athletica to open store inside Mall at University Town Center

Yoga apparel chain, lululemon athletica, committed to opening a store inside the Mall at University Town Center this week by filing building permits with Sarasota County.

The Vancouver-based chain has operated a showroom at Burns Court in Sarasota for three years. The company is known for opening smaller showrooms, which are only open a few hours a week, to test a market before opening a full-line store. The showroom in Burns Court will likely close once the full line store opens inside the 880,000-square-foot mall in October.

The Herald-Tribune first reported lululemon’s interest in opening inside the $315 million retail mall under construction at University Parkway and Interstate 75 in August. lululemon was among the slew of national retailers the Herald-Tribune reported was coming to the mall in November. lululemon joins Apple, Brooks Brothers, Anthropologie and nearly 100 others that will open when the center debuts on Oct. 16.

Photo by Dan Wagner, Herald-Tribune staff

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays